If you're like a lot of Minecraft fans, you're following the development of Minecraft Patch 1.9 with great interest, trying to figure out from the little information Mojang is dropping us what sort of things are likely to be included. While we don't know much, there are definitely a few things that we can say for sure about what's going to be included in the upcoming patch. Here's your guide to patch 1.9's rumors, hints, and teasers:There's Going to be a New Block Type

Jens Bergenstein -- lead developer of Minecraft -- posted this in response to a Reddit thread that discusses a pleasing configuration of blocks. While Jeb wasn't forthcoming in what the block might be, he is definitely confirming a new block, and there might be some hints in the picture he was responding to.

Birch, standstone, and prismarine blocks together (and yes, they do look awfully pretty). After Jeb hinted at the new block type, the picture taker responded with the following speculation:

Prismarine pillars? Redstone lamps of different textures/colors? :D Who knows!

Who knows indeed! We're definitely excited though.

Command Block Overhaul

In Episode 10 of the Limited Engagement podcast, Minecraft developer Serge revealed that Mojang would be making some changes to the way command blocks are used and overhauling the graphical interface. Up to this point, command blocks have been a mystery to a lot of users -- they're complicated, tricky, and not very user-friendly, which is too bad, because they have a lot of a cool applications.

Even if you've never used a command block, this can only be a good thing -- it will open up more opportunities to make cool maps and allow more people to get involved.

Better Boss Fights!

One thing that we can be absolutely certain (and excited) about, is that Mojang is making improvements to the way that boss fights are handled. In addition to making it possible to fight multiple bosses at a time and adding a health bar for each boss, they're entirely redoing the Ender Dragon fight to make it more exciting and engaging, modeling it after the significantly more interesting fight in Minecraft's console edition.

For a lot of players, this is a long-awaited change, and in addition to making vanilla a bit more challenging, it will give modders some awesome tools to work with.

Pressed Dirt!

Another new block type! Jeb has confirmed that they are adding pressed dirt, which fills a niche that we were missing before. This will allow for the creation of dirt paths (as seen above).

Aside from the fact that it currently has a texture similar to grass, we don't know much about it or how it will work, but it already has some pretty exciting applications.

Improvements to the Command Library and Modding Tools

Still working on that command library, today I'm trying to tackle automatic help/usage generation. But first, test cases. So many test cases

This might not be as exciting on the surface as mysterious new blocks or updated boss fights, but this Tweet hints at a lot of cool developments for the future of Minecraft modding.

What @Dinnerbone makes clear in this (and in a couple of other Tweets) is that he's been making changes to the API in order to make things easier for mod and plugin makers. And since Minecraft benefits so much already from such a great modding community, this can only be a good thing.

Shaders, Cloud Rendering, Animation Changes?

This is just a sampling of what is still to come in patch 1.9. Mojang devs have mentioned shaders, a new cloud rendering system, captions and subtitles, possible model and animation changes, and more! That's also just what's been leaked or hinted at. Who knows what kind of awesome stuff the Minecraft devs have planned for us? Stayed tuned for more!